A Renovated Building in Japan Combines Home, Office, and Store With a Surprising Twist

How do you take an old building and turn it into a combined store, warehouse, office space, and home? One architecture firm in Japan has an answer that includes airy courtyards and a gradual transition from public to private space.

Tato Architects, a firm based in Kobe and started by Yo Shimada, renovated a 40-year-old building in the southern city of Hofu to house the shop and offices of a brewery, as well as the private home of the brewery owner’s family.

On the outside of the building, wood from old miso barrels covers the walls as a nod to the brewery’s miso and soy products. 

The brewing itself happens at another site, but the company’s offices and shop are located in this building. 

To arrange the multiple parts of the mixed-use space, Tato considered how much privacy each part would need.

“We choose to place the buildings functions so that they gradually become more private. The warehouse and shop is located to the north facing the road, the office and prototyping room for product development is placed in the center, and furthest back to the south is the client’s residence,” the firm explained in a press release.

“Looking from one room, the layers of glass doors and walls create depth and gradation, blurring the boundaries between spaces.”

While the architects kept the building’s original roof and main structures, they inserted the new spaces at a 45 degree angle.

“The idea of twisting the spaces 45 degrees is to create a more ambiguous feel between the old and new architecture. It also creates diverse spaces under the eaves and courtyards, like wedged pieces of land between square fields,” Tato explains.

h/t designboom